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miércoles, 27 de marzo de 2013

Are we ready for a transatlantic marketplace?

With the rising importance of global production chains and international firms, the logic for a transatlantic agreement seems compelling. The EU and the US enjoy the most integrated economic relationship in the world, and both account together for about half (47%) the entire world GDP and for nearly a third of world trade flows. Both countries need new sources of grow, and see the Agreement as an incentive for their economies.

Although the EU and the US are relatively open towards each other in terms of investment and trade (as reflected in relatively low levels for tariffs), there are several forms of domestic regulations on both sides of the Atlantic that still constitute important impediments to transatlantic trade. Whereas Europe champions openness, the US and other commercial partners are increasingly passing protectionist laws at home, like the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which generates a protectionist-like outcome.

"The structure of the United States of Europe, if well and truly built, will be such as to make the material strength of a single state less important. Small nations will count as much as large ones and gain their honour by their contribution to the common cause. The ancient states and principalities of Germany, freely joined together for mutual convenience in a federal system, might take their individual places among the United States of Europe". Sir Winston Churchill,1946.